How to bleed air from a heating battery: use a Mayevsky crane

Residents of private houses and residents of city apartments regularly face the problem of air batteries. Especially often this phenomenon occurs at the beginning of the heating season or during repair work. Of course, you can call a plumber from the management company, but it may take a long time to wait for him. How to bleed air from the battery yourself and restore the heating system to working capacity?

Signs of an air lock

You can understand that air has accumulated in the battery by several signs:

Uneven heating of radiators. This may apply to a separate battery or the entire apartment heating system. In the first case, the airy part of the radiator will not heat up. In the second, the plug will interfere with the normal circulation of the coolant through the system, which is why some batteries will be hot, while others will be much colder.
Hissing or gurgling in the radiators is a clear sign of the presence of excess air in them.

Why is air in a battery dangerous?

Before you figure out how to bleed air from a battery, you should understand how it got there and why it is dangerous.

In addition to reducing heating efficiency, the presence of air in the batteries can lead to the following problems:

The metal from which the radiators are made is more susceptible to corrosion when exposed to air. Therefore, the service life of the elements of the heating system is significantly reduced.
The difference in temperature between the various elements of the pipeline can lead to its destruction.
The service life of the circulating sediment is significantly reduced. Under normal conditions, its bearings are in water, when air enters, it significantly increases friction, leading to damage to the device.

Causes of Airy Batteries

There can be several reasons for air to enter the system:

In an apartment building, this most often happens when the system is filled with coolant. According to the rules, the process should be carried out rather slowly, with constant bleeding of air, but in reality this is not always the case.
Incomplete tightness of the heating system. In this case, you will have to bleed the air constantly until the deficiencies are eliminated.
Carrying out various repairs. If at least a partial analysis of the pipes was carried out, some air will inevitably get inside. Therefore, after such events, it is imperative to bleed the air from the heating battery.
Poor quality of the coolant: an increased content of air dissolved in water can lead to the formation of an air lock over time.

HELPFUL INFORMATION: Calculation of the number of heating radiators by area and volume of the room

Air lock removal

A special valve, usually located at its end, will help to bleed air from the battery. Older models will need a radiator key. In modern models, a Mayevsky crane is installed, which can be operated with a simple screwdriver or a special small metal or plastic key that can be bought at a hardware or hardware store.

The sequence of actions is as follows:

To the radiator you need to substitute a sufficiently capacious container. When air is bled from the battery, some water will be released. Better not to let it hit the floor.
In films and in real life, you can see plumbers bleeding water, wet from head to toe. Indeed, this operation may be accompanied by a spray of water under pressure in the system. This is not only unpleasant, but can also harm the decoration of walls or furniture. Solving the problem is quite simple: you need to hang a cloth on the valve, which will delay all the splashes, and the water will calmly drain into a bucket or basin.
With a wrench or screwdriver, carefully unscrew the valve until a clear hiss of escaping air is heard.

As it drains, water will begin to drip. We must wait until it pours in a thin stream. The faucet can be closed as soon as air stops bubbling in this jet. This operation usually takes 5-7 minutes.

Advice. If you do not want to repeat the procedure of bleeding air too often, then follow the advice of professionals and drain at least 2-3 buckets of water. This will ensure that the air is completely removed from the radiator.

The video will help visualize this operation.

[smartcontrol_youtube_shortcode key="bleed battery" cnt="2" col="2" shls="true"]

A very convenient device is an automatic air vent. Here, the procedure takes place without any human intervention: when air accumulates, a float descends, closing the drain hole. After airing, the float returns to its place. A significant drawback of such devices is the increased requirements for the quality of the coolant. Therefore, they are rarely installed in apartment buildings with central heating, as they fail rather quickly.

What if there is no relief valve?

Sometimes there is no bleed valve on the radiator. This usually applies to older cast iron batteries, where the stub plays its role. In this case, the work becomes more complicated, but not so much that it was impossible to do it yourself.

It is necessary to stock up on a gas or adjustable wrench, with which you can unscrew the plug.

Important! Be sure to block the access of the coolant to the radiator from the riser. This is done in case the plug comes out completely. The pressure of the water then simply will not allow it to be inserted into place, and this will result in flooding of the neighbors.

The main problem is that usually a thick layer of paint and hardened tow prevent the plug from being unscrewed. You can solve it with kerosene or thread lubricant. We apply it to the connection and wait 15-20 minutes.
We carefully turn the plug and bleed the air in the same way as in the case of the Mayevsky faucet. Do not forget about the water tank and a cloth that prevents splashing.
When screwing the plug back, do not forget to apply a sealant to the thread, for example, FUM tape, to prevent battery leakage in the future.

HELPFUL INFORMATION: Installing a thermostat on a heating battery

To facilitate this difficult task, many owners in the past put in place the plugs of the usual tap. He did not add aesthetics, but made the procedure much easier.

In private homes, an expansion tank is used to eliminate air plugs. After the water is drained, a tap opens on it, and in most cases the plug disappears. If this does not happen, it is recommended to raise the temperature in the house so that the coolant boils. Then the problem of airing will definitely disappear.

For a guarantee, it is enough to carry out the procedure for bleeding excess air for all batteries twice. After that, the heating system will function normally.

Maria

It's simple, I take a screwdriver and carefully open the faucet, releasing air, if any, until water flows out. It is a pity that not all neighbors bother to bleed the air from the batteries.

Answer

Denis

Sometimes the air in the radiators is a real problem, we personally live in a private house and during the shutdown of hot water or vice versa at the beginning of the heating season, we constantly have such a problem. We bleed the air without any problems, we are already used to it, we couldn’t understand what was the matter before, since the pipes were barely warm, we called plumbers, but now we do everything ourselves.

Oleg

Yes, the old Soviet Mayevsky crane is still a unit. )) I remember this one, it was installed on heating radiators in an old apartment.In the bathroom on a heated towel rail, we replaced it with an ordinary faucet, indeed, it didn’t look very good, but it was a pleasure to let the air out before the heating season. Modern imported turnkey versions of it without problems. The main thing is not to pinch both in one direction and in the other. Bleeding air from a central heating radiator requires patience and care.